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CLARION, IOWA -- This is how things look from here, at a table in the children's section of the Clarion Free Public Library, a nice, turreted relic of the days when we all agreed on what the basics of a political commonwealth were. There's a purple scarecrow reading over my shoulder that is making me very nervous. There are lots of interesting things going on in the world beyond Iowa Rte. 3, I understand.

First of all, Tailgunner Ted Cruzhas laid down a marker -- or he's marked his territory, if that image isn't too revolting. If the Senate flips, then he's got a plan that does not include anything that looks like "moderation," if that word means a damn thing any more.

Piggybacking on what House leaders have done, Cruz said the first order of business should be a series of hearings on President Obama, "looking at the abuse of power, the executive abuse, the regulatory abuse, the lawlessness that sadly has pervaded this administration." Cruz also would like the Senate to be as aggressive in trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act as the House, which has voted more than 50 times to get rid of the law. Republicans should "pursue every means possible to repeal Obamacare," Cruz said, including forcing a vote through parliamentary procedures that would get around a possible filibuster by Democrats. If that leads to a veto by Obama, Cruz said, Republicans should then vote on provisions of the health law "one at a time." And when asked whether he would back Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for Republican leader, Cruz would not pledge his support - an indication that there are limits to how much of a partner he's willing to be.

There's this opinion abroad in the land that, if the Senate flips, a Republican majority would have to "prove they could govern," and therefore, something might get done. This speculation is fundamentally based on the notion that a distinct group of "moderate Republicans" would hold the balance of power and, even more fancifully, that this group would seek to exercise it. If hope is a thing with feathers, then this is a thing with a hyperdrive capacity. For this to happen, people like Mark Kirk of Illinois, or (gah) Susan Collins of Maine, neither of whom most Republican voters would know if they sat in their laps, would have to stand up to the likes of Cruz, who is one of only a few Republican senators with a large -- to say nothing of flamingly rabid -- national constituency. He can raise hell with people in Maine. Collins couldn't get arrested in Texas. And with whom do you think Joni Ernst, Tom Cotton, or Thom Tillis will align themselves? Susan Collins is no Charles Stewart Parnell, holding up Parliament until the government has to deal with him. Mitch McConnell would sell her to the Somali pirates to keep his job as majority leader. No, a Republican senate would be pretty much as bad as you're anticipating it might be, and there's nobody within the Republican senatorial caucus with the clout or the guts to discipline Ted Cruz. Margaret Chase Smith has been dead for a long time.

Also, a glass of Chateau Petrus to Rachel Bade of Tiger Beat On The Potomacfor blowingthe whistle on some lawless Bible bangers. It's a good thing that the Obama IRS is so dedicated to abridging the free speech rights of American conservatives, or we might be in real trouble.

Although the IRS was sued itself for not enforcing the law and admitted about 100 churches may be breaking the rules, the pastors and their critics alike say the agency is looking the other way. The agency refuses to say if it is acting. At the same time, the number of pastors endorsing candidates in what they call Pulpit Freedom Sunday jumped from 33 people in 2008 to more than 1,600 this year, according to organizers, Alliance Defending Freedom. And this year, they've stepped up their drive, telling pastors to back candidates any Sunday up until the election, not just one Sunday as in past years.

I'm sure the people at True The Vote, the social-welfare organization that is not at all about suppressing votes, although everything it does results in fewer people voting, must feel quite relieved that the jackboot of bureaucratic dumbassery has been lifted from the throats of America's pastors.

Rev. Mark Cowart, pastor at Colorado Springs-based Church For All Nations, suggested good Christians should vote Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper out of office in an Oct. 19 sermon, where he endorsed his GOP rival, Bob Beauprez. "Beauprez is against more gun control, does not support abortion and he does protect the man-woman marriage - that's the one I'm voting for. ... I'm endorsing biblical principles," the preacher said in a video of the service, pacing a church stage and chopping his hand through the air for emphasis.

I am unaware of a biblical principle that opposes "more gun control," but maybe you can find it here, on the Church For All Nations website, wherethere's a voter guide that Pastor Mark has subcontracted to the famous national hate-group, the American Family Association, and I'm not sure that's all that scripturally derived, either.

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